is the 139th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (140th in leap years). There are 226 days remaining.

Events

• 1535 - French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage).
• 1536 - Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery.
• 1568 - Queen Elizabeth I of England has Mary Queen of Scots arrested.
• 1604 - The town of Montreal is founded.
• 1643 - Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power.
• 1649 - An Act declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years.
• 1749 - King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River.
• 1780 - Never-explained complete darkness falls on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 2 pm.
• 1802 - The Légion d'Honneur is founded by Napoleon Bonaparte.
• 1828 - U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.
• 1848 - Mexican-American War: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – Mexico ratifies the treaty thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of five other modern-day U.S. states to the USA for USD $15 million.
• 1864 - American Civil War: Battle of Spotsylvania Court House ends.
• 1897 - Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol.
• 1919 - In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moves to Samsun from Istanbul with a few followers, to oppose the Ottoman government, which eventually leads to the Turkish War of Independence.
• 1921 - The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress establishing national quotas on immigration
• 1922 - Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union is established.
• 1943 - World War II: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set Monday, May 1, 1944 as the date for the cross-English Channel landing (D-Day would later be delayed over a month due to bad weather).
• 1961 - Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back data).
• 1962 - A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's infamous rendition of Happy Birthday.
• 1971 - Mars probe program: Mars 2 is launched by the Soviet Union.
• 1985 - China national football team was eliminated from the preliminary rounds of the World Cup after being defeated unexpectedly by Hong Kong national football team by 1:2 at Beijing, leading to a local riot by football fans.

Births

• 1593 - Jacob Jordaens, Flemish painter (d. 1678)
• 1700 - José de Escandón, Spanish colonial governor (d. 1770)
• 1724 - Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol, British admiral and politician (d. 1779)
• 1744 - Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (d. 1818)
• 1762 - Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher (d. 1814)
• 1773 - Arthur Aikin, English chemist, mineralogist and scientific writer (d. 1854)
• 1795 - Johns Hopkins, American philanthropist (d. 1873)
• 1827 - Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour, French statesman (d. 1896)
• 1861 - Dame Nellie Melba, Australian opera singer (d. 1931)
• 1862 - Mikhail Nesterov, Russian painter (d. 1942)
• 1870 - Albert Fish, American serial killer and cannibal (d. 1936)
• 1874 - Gilbert Jessop; English cricketer (d. 1955)
• 1879 - Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor, American-born politician (d. 1964)
• 1880 - Sir Albert Richardson, English architect (d. 1964)
• 1882 - Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister of Iran (d. 1967)
• 1890 - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnamese leader (d. 1969)
• 1891 - Oswald Boelcke, German World War I pilot (d. 1916)
• 1897 - Frank Luke, American World War I pilot (d. 1918)
• 1898 - Julius Evola, Italian philosopher (d. 1974)
• 1908 - Percy Williams, Canadian athlete (d. 1982)
• 1909 - Bruce Bennett, American athlete and actor
• 1914 - Max Perutz, Austrian-born molecular biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 2002)
• 1914 - Go Seigen, Japanese Go player
• 1921 - Yuri Kochiyama, American civil rights activist
• 1921 - Karel van het Reve, Dutch writer (d. 1999)
• 1924 - Sandy Wilson, British composer
• 1925 - Malcolm X, American civil rights activist (d. 1965)
• 1925 - Pol Pot, Cambodian dictator and mass murderer (d. 1998)
• 1925 - Guy Provost, French Canadian actor (d. 2004)
• 1926 - Swami Kriyananda, spiritual teacher and author
• 1928 - Colin Chapman, British automobile founder of Lotus Cars (d. 1982)
• 1928 - Dolph Schayes, NBA Player and Coach
• 1929 - John H. Stroger, Jr. Chicago politician
• 1930 - Lorraine Hansberry, American playwright (d. 1965)
• 1931 - Eric Tappy, Swiss tenor
• 1932 - Alma Cogan, English singer (d. 1966)
• 1934 - Jim Lehrer, American television journalist
• 1939 - Livio Berruti, Italian athlete
• 1939 - Nancy Kwan, Hong Kong actress
• 1939 - Dick Scobee, astronaut (d. 1986)
• 1940 - Mickey Newbury, American musician
• 1941 - Nora Ephron, American screenwriter
• 1942 - Gary Kildall, American computer programmer (d. 1994)
• 1944 - Peter Mayhew, British-American actor
• 1945 - Pete Townshend, English guitarist and lyricist
• 1946 - André the Giant, French professional wrestler (d. 1993)
• 1946 - Claude Lelièvre, Belgian Commissioner for Children's Rights
• 1947 - Paul Brady, Northern Ireland singer/songwriter
• 1947 - David Helfgott, Australian pianist
• 1948 - Grace Jones, Jamaican singer and actress
• 1949 - Archie Manning, American football player
• 1949 - Dusty Hill, American blues rock singer/bassist (ZZ Top)
• 1951 - Joey Ramone, American musician and singer (The Ramones) (d. 2001)
• 1952 - Bert van Marwijk, Dutch football manager
• 1953 - Victoria Wood, British comic actress
• 1954 - Phil Rudd, Australian drummer (AC/DC)
• 1956 - James Gosling, Canadian computer programmer
• 1957 - Bill Laimbeer, NBA Player and Coach
• 1963 - Yazz, British singer
• 1966 - Polly Walker, British actress
• 1968 - Kyle Eastwood, jazz musician, actor and son of Clint Eastwood
• 1972 - Jenny Berggren, Swedish singer (Ace of Base)
• 1973 - Dario Franchitti, Scottish race car driver
• 1975 - London Fletcher, American football player
• 1976 - Kevin Garnett, American basketball player
• 1977 - Manuel Almunia, Spanish footballer
• 1978 - Marcus Bent, English footballer
• 1979 - Diego Forlán, Uruguayan footballer
• 1979 - Andrea Pirlo, Italian footballer
• 1980 - Drew Fuller, American actor/model
• 1981 - Luciano Figueroa, Argentinian footballer
• 1981 - Klaas-Erik Zwering, Dutch swimmer
• 1982 - Kevin Amankwaah, English footballer
• 1984 - Marcedes Lewis, American football player
• 1988 - Lily Cole, English model/actress

Deaths

• 804 - Alcuin, English monk (b. c. 735)
• 988 - Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 909)
• 1102 - Stephen, Count of Blois
• 1125 - Vladimir Monomakh, Russian prince (b. 1053)
• 1296 - Pope Celestine V (b. 1215)
• 1319 - Louis d'Évreux, son of Philip III of France (b. 1276)
• 1389 - Dmitri Donskoi, Grand Prince of Muscovy (b. 1350)
• 1526 - Emperor Go-Kashiwabara of Japan (b. 1464)
• 1531 - Jan Łaski, Polish statesman and diplomat (b. 1456)
• 1536 - Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England (executed)
• 1601 - Costanzo Porta, Italian composer
• 1610 - Thomas Sanchez, Spanish theologian (b. 1550)
• 1637 - Isaac Beeckman, Dutch scientist and philosopher (b. 1588)
• 1645 - Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese swordsman
• 1715 - Charles Montagu, Chancellor of the Exchequer (b. 1661)
• 1786 - John Stanley, English composer (b. 1712)
• 1795 - Josiah Bartlett, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1729)
• 1795 - James Boswell, Scottish biographer (b. 1740)
• 1798 - William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, English dueler (b. 1722)
• 1821 - Camille Jordan, French politician (b. 1771)
• 1825 - Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon, French political philosopher (b. 1760)
• 1864 - Nathaniel Hawthorne, American author (b. 1804)
• 1876 - Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, Dutch politician (b. 1801)
• 1885 - Peter W. Barlow, English engineer (b. 1809)
• 1895 - José Martí, Cuban independence leader (b. 1853)
• 1898 - William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1809)
• 1904 - Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)
• 1907 - Benjamin Baker, English engineer (b. 1840)
• 1912 - Bolesław Prus, Polish writer (b. 1847)
• 1918 - Raoul Lufbery, French-American World War I fighter pilot and flying ace (b. 1885)
• 1935 - T. E. Lawrence, English soldier (b. 1888)
• 1943 - Kristjan Raud, Estonian painter (b. 1865)
• 1946 - Booth Tarkington, American novelist (b. 1869)
• 1954 - Charles Ives, American composer (b. 1874)
• 1958 - Ronald Colman, English actor (b. 1891)
• 1965 - Tui Malila, world's oldest tortoise (b. 1773 or 1777)
• 1969 - Coleman Hawkins, American musician (b. 1901)
• 1971 - Ogden Nash, American poet (b. 1902)
• 1983 - Jean Rey, President of the European Commission (b. 1902)
• 1984 - John Betjeman, English poet (b. 1906)
• 1987 - James Tiptree, Jr, American author (b. 1915)
• 1989 - CLR James, West Indian writer and journalist (b. 1901)
• 1994 - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, First Lady of the United States (b. 1929)
• 1998 - Uno Sosuke, Japanese prime minister (b. 1922)
• 2000 - Yevgeny Khrunov, cosmonaut (b. 1933)
• 2002 - John Gorton, nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1911)
• 2002 - Walter Lord, American writer (b. 1917)
• 2004 - Mary Dresselhuys, Dutch actress (b. 1907)
• 2005 - Henry Corden, American actor and voice artist (b. 1921)
• 2006 - Alexandrina van Donkelaar-Vink, oldest Dutch citizen (b. 1895)
• 2006 - Freddie Garrity, English lead singer from the band Freddie and the Dreamers (b. 1940)

Holidays and observances

• Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  • Dunstan
  • Peter Celestine
  • Ives
  • Emiliana
  • Pudentiana
  • Theophilus of Corte
• Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day in Turkey (1919).
• Commemoration of Pontian Greeks Genocide in Greece.
• NASCAR Day USA.(2006)
• National Hug-Your-Cat Day

External links

• BBC: On This Day
• The New York Times: On This Day
• On This Day in Canada

May 18 - May 20 - April 19 - June 19 – listing of all days

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